©Michael Player
Chapter 11:25-36 (ESV) - Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written,
“The Deliverer will come from Zion,
he will banish ungodliness from Jacob”;
“and this will be my covenant with them
when I take away their sins.”
As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy. For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
“For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been his counselor?”
“Or who has given a gift to him
that he might be repaid?”
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
Question to consider: How does God use our disobedience to demonstrate His mercy to the world?
Paul’s statement “lest you be wise in your own sight” was a reference to yesterday’s passage where Paul gave a warning to the Gentile believers that they should not think they have now received some special favor with God because of the partial hardening of Israel that caused some to be pruned from the olive tree. Paul considered the Gentiles a “wild branch” that was grafted into the tree of Israel and could easily be removed if they did not continue in the grace and mercy of God.
So to give the Gentile readers understanding of God’s mercy to them, Paul revealed a mystery regarding the salvation of Jews and Gentiles. Many have taken the statement “until the fullness of the Gentiles have come in” to be a specific time in the future when God will remove the church from the earth and then proceed to save all of the Jews.
I would be more amenable to this idea if the next statement had been, “And at this time all Israel will be saved.” However, the statement is instead, “And in this way all Israel will be saved”. The idea of a future point in which all Jews would come to faith by some other means than the preaching of the gospel goes against the entirety of Paul’s letters and should be rejected.
The statement is instead declaring the manner in which God has reached the Jews with the gospel over the course of time. God mysteriously has shown us all to be unworthy of His mercy and thus open our hearts to receive His free gift of grace. God allowed the hardening to happen in order for the gospel to go out to the Gentiles, and in going out to the Gentiles, God has allowed the gospel to go throughout the world and be once again preached to the Jews. When we read “all Israel”, we need to consider it light of all of the Jews who would recognize their Messiah, for Paul has already established that “not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel.” (Romans 9:6)
The destruction of the Jerusalem temple in AD 70 means that God has ended the animal sacrifices for the covering of sins, and thus it provides a path for us to talk about the sacrifice of Christ which was made for the sins of the world. It’s unfortunate that people have so misunderstood some of the Old Testament prophets like Daniel who established that Christ could not have come at any other time in history.
With the modern dispensational view of Christ’s prophetic discourse on the Mount of Olives, people have turned the most amazing fulfillment of prophecy into a future fulfillment and thus undermined a wonderful apologetic to the Jews. The passages that Paul quoted from Isaiah (59:20,21, 27:9) establishes the idea that salvation would come through a goel (Redeemer/Deliverer) to bring in righteousness, and thus the temple would be destroyed.
In bringing about this plan of salvation that shows us our sin and need for Christ, Paul recognized that God is amazing beyond measure and worthy of all glory, laud and honor. Amen.
Dear heavenly Father, thank You for taking away our ability to boast in anything other than the cross of Christ. May we walk humbly in knowing that You have granted us favor by Your mercy and therefore overflow with that mercy to our neighbor. Amen.